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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

When the lights in the basement of the United Methodist Church were turned out Easter Sunday, and the congregates filed out the door into the brisk spring afternoon, a story in Dixon’s history ended without fanfare.

The oldest congregation in the county seat met for the final time in its 155-year existence, and its members now look toward a future in separate places of worship.

In her home — itself a remnant of a time when the Civil War was still a fresh memory instead of a chapter in a history textbook — Janice Gillespie related some of the history of the church and its members.

For Webster County residents, recently released data from the sixth annual County Health Rankings may be cause for concern. Since about 2003, the premature death rate (or the rate of deaths prior to age 75) has been on the rise. Today Webster County ranks 84th out of 120 Kentucky counties on average life expectancy.